WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF THIS WEBSITE?

My name is Bill Harms. I was born in the Sacred Heart Hospital
in Spokane. I grew up in Spokane Valley and graduated from West
Valley High School in 1974. As I grew up, I was fascinated by the
tall radio towers on Spokane's South Hill, especially
KHQ's tower with the neon tubes which ran the entire length
of its 800-plus-foot tall mast. I used to take a radio with me to
bed and listen to stations all night long. I also built my own
crystal radio set and would put the attached telephone receiver
speaker under my pillow so I could listen to the local
stations. Although my career has taken me away from broadcasting,
I have always been fascinated with the idea of putting voices and
music over the air and picking them up on the other end.

I also love history, especially Spokane history. So I decided
that I would put my two interests together and write a history of
broadcasting in Spokane. This project started in 2005 when
I visited Spokane and became acquainted with Tom Read of the
American Pioneer Broadcasters. Also during my visit, I located
KGA's old transmitter building at the Lidgerwood Elementary
School and was introduced to a gentleman named Dean Carriveau who
graciously allowed me to copy the original manuscript of
Jorgenson and Partlow's Early Days of Spokane Radio.
With Tom's encouragement and armed with Jorgenson and
Partlow's work, I received the impetus to go forward with
this project. Since then I have "spelunked" into the
FCC records at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.
But the most gratifying part of this project is getting to
personally know many of the Spokane broadcasters for whom this
is all about.